This article contains major spoilers from the Boruto Two Blue Vortex Manga; if you have yet to read the latest chapter, we highly advise you to do so before viewing the current article.
The 4th chapter of Boruto Two Blue Vortex has dropped, leaving us with countless questions, but more on getting our answer about Sasuke’s faith and more about the mysterious Grime creatures who appeared alongside Code.
In this article, we’ll analyse and come up with the best possible answer for what exactly happened to Sasuke and whether he is dead OR alive. With that being said, let us begin!
Is Sasuke Dead, Or Is Sasuke Alive But Sealed?
Earlier, we had speculated that Sasuke may have perished during the events of the time skip, mainly when he and Boruto encountered Code two years ago while on the move. This resulted in Code retreating, but not without being scarred in his right eye.
We also speculated that this might be the battle in which Sasuke could’ve possibly died and most likely was the reason for causing Boruto to fly into a rage and scar Code before making him retreat. However, now, after the release of Chapter 4, these speculations have come to almost 99.99% true.
Firstly, I want to establish that Sasuke is not dead but is left in a vegetative state. (plant pun, hehe)
Sarada confirms this: Sasuke wasn’t the only one turned into a tree.
However, it is still unknown how long Sasuke will live. Given the recent manga chapter, the grime takes the form of the people stuck in the trees. This is also connected with the ever-evolving “Grimes”, who are nothing more than the consciousness of the Divine Tree.
These Grimes were also extensively modified by Code himself, giving them not just his claw marks but also “Self Awareness” that has caused the Grimes to develop personalities and shift from their original purpose of JUST being a means to zap Chakra from countless Planets and beings.
However, these grimes are “curious” for knowledge and the drive to learn more about things around them. This has caused their original instincts to get overwritten by their ever-growing thirst for knowledge.
Jūra’s first appearance
As mentioned above, these awakened grimes take the form of those stuck in trees. The same thing happened to Sasuke, and he is now like this:
Hidari faces off against Code and Boruto
This Sasuke grime has characteristics of the real Sasuke and is devoid of all the physical flaws of the real one’s body. The grime can channel Sasuke’s abilities as it siphoned off Sasuke’s life force/ Chakra through the tree Sasuke is trapped in.
And if the grime is directly siphoning off Sasuke’s life force through the tree, then there is a chance that Sasuke might die.
Hence, the reason why Boruto is so eager to hunt down the ten tails and take it out. For now, we can say that Sasuke’s fate is sealed permanently in a tree.
This leads us to the question of the make of these grimes, so let us understand them in detail.
What Are The Claw Grimes In Boruto Two Blue Vortex?
These Frieza-like creatures, called “Claw Grimes”, were created by Code by dividing the ten tail’s main body into smaller beings as his extendible pawns known as “Fission Beings”. Initially, this was used as a defence mechanism by the Ten-Tails during the Fourth Shinobi World War to protect its main body.
Ten Tails’ first instance of performing Biological Fission. From Naruto Chapter 632, Fighting Together
Code would later make Ishikki’s Ten Tails forcefully fission out tiny beings and name them Claw Grimes. These creatures, as we saw in Chapter 2, bite people and, using their chakra, sprout into miniature god trees.
Think of them as the Pure Titans from “Attack on Titan” who solely want to consume Humans in hopes of gaining the current shifter’s Titan.
While they weren’t as challenging as they seemed, we saw that one could evolve, especially after coming into contact with Kawaki. This occurred when Kawaki sent one flying to the ground, and it was able to grow a mouth.
An eye with a mysterious Dōjutsu, possibly the Rinnegan without the tomoe, similar to ten tails as it is generally seen with one as its central eye.
So, these humanoid creatures can evolve and slowly gain these features similar to the ten tails after consuming the chakra in high concentration.
This isn’t surprising as in the past, we have seen Ten Tails taking the Chakra of planets to produce fruits or how Madara used Hashirama’s cells and implanted them into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, causing White Zetsus to be born and be clones of the First Hokage.
Think of Ten Tails as nothing but a cultivating being. Whatever is fed to it will cause it to absorb and cultivate something out of it.
Claw Grime further evolves and grows out an eye with a Rinnegan-like Dōjutsu.
As we later find out about Sasuke’s final stand against Code in chapter 5, we see the first instance of someone being eaten by a Grime and trapping the victims into a tree. This would further explain why Boruto is trying to warn Code of the creature’s dangers and how difficult it can be to control it.
Boruto taunts Code. From Boruto Two Blue Vortex Chapter 2, “Tree.”
The most notable example is Obito, who in the fourth Shinobi world war had become the ten tails’ Jinchūriki and midway into his fight, he bloated up and nearly broke apart internally due to the strain of controlling the beast’s chakra and thus his new physiology.
Through Chakra Absorptions and Code’s enhancements on the Grimes, they appear to be evolving at a gradual rate and may soon also become beings that aren’t just driven by the desire to consume an Otsutsuki but to develop further but have their own free will and to learn more about its surroundings.
So far, we have seen only four specimens who have reached this state, as seen in Chapter 4, where we first encounter a Grime who looks much like the long-dead Bug. However, Boruto quickly explains that while the Creature may LOOK like Bug, it isn’t him but the Divine Tree itself.
Proving that the Grimes has taken the form of recently incapacitated victims who’ve turned into trees, and while they may look like their victims do not share the same personality as them.
Four highly evolved Otsutsuki-like Grimes, born from the Divine tree (Ten Tails)
This behaviour is similar to that of White Zetsu’s substitution technique, where they too can take the form of anyone either through contact or the Chakra they take and can become a Substitute; however, in this case, the Grimes have instead taken the forms of its victims and due to it, has caused them to evolve further which also caused them to develop intellect and surpass their primary instincts.
However, despite developing intellects, the beings are still not completely void of their Ōtsutsuki consuming instincts, as observed with the Bug Grime, who developed a jaw-like arm to consume Boruto. However, it’s only due time until these creatures no longer need to do that, considering their desire to gain knowledge.
Sasuke’s Claw Grime
Hidari chooses his target. From Boruto Chapter 5, Target
During the events of Chapter 4, we met quite a few new adversaries for Boruto to deal with. Among these was one evolved Shinju (God Tree) who looked like Sasuke!?
Yes, you heard that right: Sasuke is also now one of the mysterious Grimes/ Shinju beings. In Chapter 5, as we watch the beings talking about whom they should target next to evolve further, Jūra, the “leader” of the Shinjus, in the moment of explaining to Matsuri how her thoughts are her own despite being biologically the same as Moegi. Further explaining to the grimes how they are evolving differently than usual, it is best to follow their instincts and choose their targets.
This is also when we hear this Grime’s name, “Hidari”, which is the word Left in Japanese, quite fitting for Sasuke as he is naturally left-handed, as confirmed during the scene where Hagaromo asks Sasuke for his dominant arm.
Sasuke reassures Boruto of the legitimacy of his statement.
But how exactly did Sasuke even become one of the grimes? All of this was finally answered to us in the currently latest chapter, where we get a glimpse into the past with Sasuke, finally teaching Boruto everything he could to the young Shinobi and stating he is finally ready, leaving Boruto to feel his master was joking about how those were all the techniques Sasuke had, to which he quickly corrects he wasn’t joking at all and was serious.
And to me, it makes sense because Sasuke mostly had a lot of techniques that coordinated with his Dojutsu and hence must have taught Boruto Lightening and Fire release-based techniques as well as his Taijutsu style, which gives Boruto a head start to continue working over his techniques.
But the question remains: who exactly taught Boruto the Flying Thundergod technique? My best guess would still be Sasuke, as he had a first-hand observation of the technique during the fourth shinobi world war, and we can only speculate that Boruto rendezvoused with Kiji Kashin sometime after Sasuke’s defeat.
Sasuke’s last stand. From Chapter 5, Target
Anywho, we next jump into the long-awaited battle between our heroes and Code, who appears to have lost his eye at the hands of Sasuke, but that didn’t mean good news for our protagonists as they were surrounded by Grimes, both protagonists being at their very limits, with Boruto appearing to have damaged his Katana during the battle. In the act of sacrifice, Sasuke does one last charge whilst leaving Boruto with final orders to Boruto to continue honing his skills and requests him to look after his daughter during his absence.
As the dust settled, Sasuke was encased within a tree with various grimes being cut down around him, leaving Boruto with a new set of responsibilities and the goal to keep moving forward as he withdrew his Master’s Katana back into his sheath.
Sasuke’s Claw Grime, Hidari, looks exactly like him as well; he has, however, much longer hair which extends as his sort of clothing, both arms, which he was shown to turn into a blade, which also means these creatures not only look like their genetic templates but also can mimic their fighting style.
This grime was also capable of utilising lightning release and had a pair of Rinnegan-like eyes, which, like the 6 paths of pain, have a shared vision and could also mean they all have each of the path’s abilities IF there is an outer path amongst them.
Jūra explains to Hidari how to find his identity. From Chapter 5, Target
However, as we delve deeper into the 5th chapter, we see this grime, unlike the rest, having difficulties coming to terms with what kind of a being he is. However, he is later much persuaded (at least for the time being) by Jūra, who explains that by following their instinctual drive and choosing their targets, they will attain enlightenment by realising their true natures as Shinju.
This leads Hidari to choose his target, Sasuke’s daughter, Sarada.
Final Thoughts
Seeing what has become of Sasuke and how Boruto has a ticking clock on his head shows how this story is shaping itself. We see the rise of Grimes and how they are slowly becoming increasingly like Ōtsutsukis to someday reach the same state of being as Shibai Ōtsutsuki.
I still wonder if these will be the beings that ultimately destroy Konoha, and I feel this can be the case. Let’s say Shikamaru goes ahead with Sarada’s word on Boruto, and they form a temporary alliance; during this alliance, Kawaki’s desires get in the way and cause friction and ultimately cause the fight.
But I feel I am getting way out of hand and instead should wait to see what they have in store as the flash forward is still a year away in story years.
Next, I love the expansion to Ten-Tails and how whatever it consumes causes it to not only mature but now, thanks to Code’s intervention, which has caused it to gain intelligence, is on its way to chasing its desires to learn more about the world.
However, what this may lead to is still quite uncertain, but at the same time, it is still fascinating how the Ten-Tails is now a free being rather than a tool for the Ōtsutsukis to harness fruits and evolve as a species.
The ten tails, however, does seem to have its methods to carry out this plan, and I speculate that one of the ways it will gain knowledge is through eating intelligent life like how it’s always done and taking that set person’s form and further evolve itself and others like itself.
This explains the Bug Grime, who tried to devour Boruto, as it may have wanted to expand its reach and gain more knowledge than it strives to do. But there is also a possibility that not all Grimes have the same levels of intellect and may still be prone to their instincts.
It is pretty similar to characters like Majin Buu, who absorbs beings and leaves them incapacitated and trapped in his body but in return gains that being’s intellect and move sets, which is what made Super Buu with Gohan, Piccolo, and Gotenks absorbed dangerous and the strongest of all his variants.
We also get an interesting look into how the evolved beings react to the world around them as their curiosity also involves them still sticking to follow their instinctual drive to eat their chosen targets, which means Kawaki and potentially Konoha will have to team up with Boruto to fight these evolving creatures and maybe we will also get to see just how strong Kawaki, Eida and the others have gotten in the past few years.
Chapter 6 is right around the corner, and I believe it will delve into more of the after-reactions to the grime, especially of Eida, who appeared to be shaken by Bug claw grime, declaring her as his target and considering this is Bug’s claw grime it seems to be holding vengeance against those it’s genetic template was mistreated under and is using that to fuel it’s style of fighting as we have seen how animalistic it can get.
Not to mention how this arc takes so much inspiration from the Android/ Cell sagas. Biologically advanced artificial beings are on the hunt for powerful beings while possessing their abilities, not to mention we have two genetically modified humans (Eida and Damon).
Could these beings also be the reason for the inevitable destruction of Konoha and Kawaki’s loss of faith in the Shinobi system?
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